Contactless Medicine: The Posthuman Surgeon in Stephen L. Burns’s Science Fiction Novel <i>Flesh and Silver</i>

Abstract In Flesh and Silver, Stephen L. Burns imagines a future where doctors become surgical robots. This novel problematizes the ever-growing presence of technology in medical practice and its power to transform the dynamics of clinical relationships with the extinction of the human touch. This critical analysis explores the human–machine interplay in both modern medicine and the fictional world of Burns’s novel to prove that the posthuman surgeon is not too different from modern human surgeons. Three main themes are dissected: (1) the influence of technology in the transformation of the medical profession and surgery, (2) the reinvention of clinical touch from a posthuman perspective, and (3) the sense of otherness of the posthuman surgeon. Flesh and Silver is an example of how speculative fiction can contribute to the current debates about transhumanism and posthumanism, as this story problematizes not only the posthuman condition in contraposition to anthropocentrism, but also the dehumanizing nature of biomedical sciences, reinforced by the use of technology, for both doctors and patients.